Page 41 of Blood and Buttercups

“Why?” he asks, startled by the abrupt question.

“Your family’s store has been here forever, which means you’ve probably been here forever, too. I wonder if we ever bumped into each other when we were younger.”

“You want to know if we went to school together?”

“We didn’t.”

“How can you be so sure?” he asks.

My eyes stray from the road to the man in my passenger seat. “I’d remember you.”

He looks over, his eyes meeting mine. “People change a lot in ten years.”

That makes me pause. “Didwe go to school together?”

“No.”

“How canyoube so sure?” I ask, parroting his question.

He waits a beat, staying quiet until I look back at him. “Because I’d remember you.”

My poor heart squeezes…and then I remember I’m a vampire. A pre-vampire, granted. But still…a vampire.

“I’m thirty-one,” he finally answers.

I rip my eyes back to the road. “How long have you been away from town?”

“I got a job right out of high school and worked here until I was twenty-three. I moved to Denver when I got promoted.”

“What were you doing?”

He thinks about that for a moment, like he’s trying to put his thoughts in order. “I work for an organization that specializes in pathogen research and public safety. I was a human resources officer…of sorts.”

“You worked in human resources?” I pause. “Like…withpeople?”

He snorts out a laugh. “I dealt with rule violators.”

“Ah. And why are you back here?”

“I stumbled across some corruption within the organization, followed it almost all the way to the top, and then mysteriously found myself demoted.”

“So, you quit and came back to work for your family’s grocery store?”

“That was just for a few weeks while paperwork was being processed. I’m still working for the organization. Supposedly, I can return to my old job in a year.”

“So, what are you doing now?” I park in my usual spot, noticing the street is already crowded.

“I’m in the training department.”

“You’re a trainer?”

“More like a babysitter.”

“Do you enjoy it?” I turn off the engine, angling to look at him when he doesn’t answer right away.

His eyes meet mine, molten honey. “It has its perks.”

And I don’t know why…but I think he means I’m one of them.

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